Motivation of this project is that mass production has become widespread in order to provide growing demand of human being and art, design and handcraft have started to vanish. Art, design and handcraft not only decorate items used in daily life but also carry cultural, traditional even historical elements on them. For this, main aim of the project is to revitalize of art, design and handcraft in education for increasing awareness about culture, tradition, history in order to recognize main futures of community of participant countries.

Activities that are carried out for reaching the aim are that each country will provide items which represent countries prototype models and carry traditional and/or cultural elements. Then, these items will be shown at local exhibitions during the partner meetings. After that, leaflets that explain cultural and traditional elements of items will be prepared by each country. Lastly, a booklet that includes all items of participating countries and their meanings will be prepared and shared at the final meeting. Each participating institution has tasks which are; providing items and information about them, participating meetings and organize at least one partner meeting and doing other responsibilities defined rest of the application form and defined by coordinator.

Students and teachers will involve in project activities and it is expected that project activities make ongoing curriculum not only richer but also more attractive as well. The project activities will be evaluated by students, teachers and other stakeholders in order to define to what extent project activities have been met during and at the end of the project. Results and outcomes of the project will be used and disseminated organization, local community and LLP level.

It is a well-known fact that the population of the world is increasing gradually, which means that the needs of human beings are growing with the world population. People are trying to sort out growing demands with limited supply. So, as a solution to imbalance between supply and demand mass production has become common and widespread throughout the world. In order to provide supplies with limited sources, companies have started to produce goods, clothes, household items etc. as a mass production in factories and firms. However, mass production started to find solutions for increasing demands with restricted supplies but this brought other problems such as loss of art, design and handcraft in daily life items.

While people are trying to solve their increasing demand problems regarding goods, foods, clothes, household items etc, they forgot to engrave art, design and handcraft in articles which are used in everyday life. Art, design and handcraft are not only things that adorn and decorate goods and clothes but also represent/convey the cultures and traditions of a community. Main features of a community and its traditions and even its history are hidden under art, design and handcraft of the community. Art, design and handcraft are not only making items more attractive and beautiful, they identify main features of a community. It could be said that by looking at a community’s art, design and handcraft, many features of that community could be predicted.

Shortly, mass production has become more common in order to supply world’s grooving demands but it makes art, design and handcraft forgotten. Mass production makes not only art, design and handcraft forgotten; it also makes culture, tradition and even history hidden in art, design and handcraft forgotten as well. That is what our motivation for preparing this project is and why this project is needed.

Main aim of this project is to revitalize of art, design and handcraft through education for increasing awareness about culture, tradition, history which are hidden under the art, design and handcraft in order to recognize main futures of community of participant countries. Apart from main aim stated above, we also intend to touch upon objectives as follow;

1. Exchanging knowledge, experiences and competencies between teachers working with craft and design in VET, from 16 year to adults in participant countries. 2. Promoting cooperation and collaboration between partner countries in order to compare cultural similarities and differences via art, design and handcraft. 3. Transferring best practices in art, design and handcraft education between partner countries. 4. Expanding intercultural familiarization and increasing the participants’ tolerance towards other cultures by sharing experiences and working together. 5. Broadening awareness of social skills like communication, team working, taking responsibility, taking initiative and professional ethics. 6. Preserving of art, design and handicraft which are in danger of disappearing in education because of mass production. 7. Helping the project participants to improve their foreign language skills obtain communication and cooperation experience and to broaden their outlook. The subjects that we intend to address are; – Art, design and handcraft education in participant countries. – Cultures, traditions, stories and even histories of partner countries under art, design and handcraft. – Similarities and differences which are explained through art, design and handcraft between partner countries. We will focus on wood and textile crafts because partner schools have common interest in these fields. Moreover, art, design and handcraft are shown on items produced by these departments. The approaches that will be used are; – Each participant country will prepare prototype items in which art, design and handcraft could be seen on them. – Every country will organize at least one partner meeting and these items will be shown at host country’s exhibition during partner meeting. Items that will be exhibited should be work of students. – A workshop will be conducted by host country during the partner meeting to explain main features of the items that represent culture, tradition and stories. -Common database will be constituted to recognize differences and similarities.

Added values that we expect from the project are as follows:
– Enhancing intercultural dialog and reinforcing European citizenship within partners.
– Improving knowledge of European identities and cultures.
– Developing cultural awareness in participating countries through art, design and handcraft to contribute united Europe
– Increasing mobility of trainees and staffs at European level in order to familiar with each other and diminishing prejudge.
– Increasing entrepreneurial spirit of participants on European level for contributing free circulation of workforce.
-Discovering other cultures will increase participants’ awareness to be good European citizens.
– Helping the project participants to improve their foreign language skills and sociocultural competencies, to obtain communication and cooperation experience and to broaden their outlook in order to understand better each others for tolerant Europe.
-Providing Europasses certificates for participants which are valuable for the participants’ future life.

We expect that this project will have impacts on both persons (learners, teachers and other training staff) and institutions:

For students and trainees, the project will have a positive impact on them to promote awareness of importance of art, design and handcraft in education. They will learn from each others about how to improve art, design and handcraft in education and vitalize them which are becoming extinct. The project will also motivate them to learn and use foreign languages and encourage them to be well-prepared for a globalized EU market where they will circulate freely in the near future. Moreover, the project will improve the students´ sense of team work and cooperation as well.

Teachers and training staff will improve their knowledge about how to survive art, design and handcraft in education and rescue them from become extinction. Teachers and training staff will learn from their colleagues different kind of handcraft and design style that make not only their point of view but also their competencies broaden. We also consider that this project will make them more “open-minded” and will create the possibility for them to better understand other cultures via art, design and handcraft. Thus, the project will give an opportunity for trainers to advance their teaching ability and teaching strategies according to the EU market learned through project.

For institutions, we also expect a good impact on institutions in participant countries because institutions will have opportunity to recognize their strengths and weaknesses by comparing implementation of their art, design and handcraft in education with other participant countries’ implementations. It might be expected that institutions can transfer good practices of art, design and handcraft in education from other participating countries. Furthermore, being part of a multinational EU project will motivate participant institutions and their staffs to as well.